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Political commentator Lloyd B. Smith says Everald Warmington's resignation from the Cabinet did not come as a surprise as the former Minister's actions have been called into question on numerous occasions.
Mr. Warmington drew the ire of the public as well as civil society and private sector groups after he was captured on video threatening to withhold funding to a PNP councillors in his capacity as Works Minister.
He later issued an apology on Wednesday, but it did not prevent calls for him to be fired from the Cabinet.
Mr. Smith believes action should have been taken against Mr. Warmington long ago, considering his many controversial statements over the years.
"We have had so many, mostly misses, with respect to his many occasions when he has been crude, rude, intemperate, and just outrightly outrageous. And it took the Prime Minster too long for sufficient pressure to be placed on him to step aside. It is good that he has now done so," said the commentator, who added that today "will go down in history as one of the best days in Jamaican politics in a long time when both political leaders did the right thing".
Mr. Smith also commended People's National Party president Mark Golding for his swift decision to remove Dennis Meadows as the party's standard bearer in the Trelawny North constituency.
Mr. Meadows, who made comments condoning lottery scamming, had also apologised but there was still concern this was not enough.
Mr. Smith said Mr. Golding's sacking of the MP hopeful is a signal that he will not be tolerating indiscipline under his leadership.
"It helps to send the right signal to the wider Jamaican society that we must be a nation of law and order, and that any condonement of any illicit activity in the country, regardless of whatever benefits may be derived from it, can't be justified."
"Mr. Meadows should have realised that he is a legislator in waiting and he was previously a senator, and it is unfortunate that he did not take those factors into consideration when he made those pronouncements, because automatically those pronouncements made him ineligible to be a people's representative in the House of Parliament," Mr. Smith noted.
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